This invention relates to a method of removing ruthenium contamination from a liquid radioactive effluent, which can be used for crude effluents or for effluents which have previously been chemically treated by conventional methods.
It is known that radioactive effluents such as aqueous solutions obtained from the processing of irradiated nuclear fuels can be subjected to various chemical decontamination treatments to eliminate, in particular, ruthenium. The majority of these treatments consist in forming, inside the effluent which is to be treated, precipitates capable of fixing the ruthenium, for example by adding ferrous and copper ions to this effluent and then adjusting the pH of the effluent to a value of 7-8.5 in order to precipitate the corresponding copper and iron compounds.
However, the effluents thus treated still have an excessively high ruthenium content, so that additional treatment is required to reduce their residual ruthenium activity.